The principle of not invoking unnecessary agents is fundamental to science. It is embodied in Occam’s Razor, that if two theories have equal explanatory power, the one that makes fewer assumptions is preferred.
For example, suppose one can see a computer screen but not the hardware and software that run it. The screen changes in bit units, so it could be that unseen bit particles cause that, but the alternative is that the screen changes in bits because that is the basic computer process. If now new effects like color and movement require more particles to be assumed, but a bit process could still cause them, the latter theory is preferred by Occam’s Razor, and indeed it is so.
Likewise, electro-magnetic effects can be explained by assuming virtual photons or by taking the photon to be the basic quantum network process. Either could be true, but more virtual particles are needed to explain effects like nuclear bonding and neutron decay, while a processing theory needs no further assumptions, so it is preferred. Changes in electro-magnetism then occur in photon units for the same reason that computer screens change in bit units. We see a correlation between photons and electro-magnetism, but confusing correlation with causation is a common error of science (Note 1).
Quantum processing, as envisaged here, always runs, so it doesn’t need agents to push it. It also spreads naturally on the network, so an electron that falls to a lower energy orbit doesn’t need a virtual orbit particle to make it so. The forces that the standard model attributes to virtual particles are then explained by processing as follows:
1. Electro-magnetism. The standard model needs virtual photons to explain charge and magnetism, but if a photon is the basic quantum process, no virtual agents are needed to explain electrical and magnetic forces (Chapter 5).
2. The strong effect. The standard model needed a new field that created eight gluons with three charges to explain nuclear bonding, but if quarks bond by sharing photons to achieve stability, again no virtual agents are needed (4.4.4).
3. The weak effect. The standard model needed another field, three new particles, and two new charges to explain neutrons decay, and still couldn’t explain why protons don’t do the same, but if neutron decay is a neutrino effect, protons will only decay in stars, and again no virtual agents are needed (4.4.6).
4. The Higgs. If weak particles don’t exist, the Higgs boson isn’t needed at all. It’s just a flash-in-the-pan accelerator resonance that didn’t survive to affect the evolution of matter, so it’s the ultimate unnecessary virtual agent (4.4.7).
5. Gravity. Every attempt to find gravitons has failed, as gravity waves aren’t particles, but the standard iconography still shows them as real (Figure 4.17). In relativity, gravity alters space and time, but particles that exist in space and time can’t do that. Chapter 5 attributes gravity to an electro-magnetic field gradient.
If a processing model explains the forces of physics without virtual particles, they are unnecessary agents. In this theory, all the forces of nature come from one field that causes both electro-magnetism and gravity. This is simpler than many fields with any particles, so it is preferred by Occam’s razor.
In contrast, the standard model struggles to explain its own inventions. For example, if the Higgs interacts with some particles to create mass, how do other particles interact? A quark can experience electro-magnetic, strong, weak, and gravity forces at the same time, but how then do virtual photons, gluons, weak particles, and gravitons interact? The standard model doesn’t say. And matter particles imply anti-matter versions, so what happens if a Higgs meets an anti-Higgs? Again, the standard model predicts nothing, so physics is better off without it.
Note 1. The number of ice-creams sold in America correlates with deaths by drowning, so do ice-creams kill? In Europe, number of stork nests correlates with human babies born, so do storks bring babies? In both cases, X and Y correlate because both are caused by a third agent Z, namely the weather, not because they cause each other. Correlation is not causation.